About the Gaymers thread

[Tarrasque Wrangler]

If you haven't seen it yet: Gaymers

I see that Tidus himself has begged for the thread to be closed, so I can imagine it's only a matter of time.

Reading through the topic, I don't think Tidus or anyone supporting him really said anything that offensive, certainly nothing dirty or profane. Tidus had some mild jabs at the right wing in his home state, and when a few people who were unclear on the point of the thread were offended, he edited them out and apologized. They then continued to harp on those points, which I consider very poor form for these boards.

This is the crux of my problem. If you see something on these boards you don't like, why do you have to argue about it? If I see a television program I don't like while channel surfing, I don't call up my cable company. I don't start yelling at the TV. I CHANGE CHANNELS.

People like myself were imparting some good advice on the lad. Now I fear someone who could have given him more good advice will never know this thread even existed, all because a few people had a problem. I know he was directed to the Gaymers group at Yahoo, but he came to us first, and my heart swells at that. It made me feel like this is a real community, worth supporting. And a couple of people had to ruin it.

I'm not proud to be a ENWorld Community Supporter today.

 

[Tarrasque Wrangler]

BTW, despite the topic name, I don't mean this as a thread about a thread. My feeling is that what happened there points up a larger problem about ENWorld, which Dinkeldog expressed rather well in his locking post. The problem is that moderators are not here to make sure you never ever see anything you don't agree with or that challenges your world view. That's what the back button is for.

 

[Kahuna Burger]

You know, I didn't even get to the thread until after the edit. I imagine a lot of people were in the same position. Having been in some sem acrimonious threads, I'd like to think that if someone made some inappropriate comments and then willingly edited them themselves, I would let that subject drop. To continue making edited comments the subject of the thread is just confusing for newcomers and bogs things down.

btw, I mentioned the thread to my bf and summarized it as "one of the posters recently realized he was gay and will be stuck at a catholic high school for the next four years." Bf said, without dropping a beat, "Poor kid". Bf, for reference, is straight, doesn't have any gay friends to speak of and is himself catholic - in fact he went to notre dame and still worships the school. So I find the idea that acknowleging this is a bad place for the kid is somehow "anti-catholic" to be... well, hypersensitive.

Kahuna burger

 

[Kahuna Burger]

The problem is that moderators are not here to make sure you never ever see anything you don't agree with or that challenges your world view. That's what the back button is for.

I found it interesting that one poster complained aong the lines that the only views welcome were those that agreed with titus... well, yeah. I mean, when OT posts are made about children, including a poster who sought support during his wife's pregnancy problems, people who hate children and don't think that parenting is at all good to begin with are not welcome to express those veiws. On the other hand, if a person with those sort of veiws was looking for support against her parents pressuring her for grandchildren; people telling her that she is wrong, her parents were right and her life will be meaningless if she doesn't reproduce (and she's going to hell for using contreception) would be equally unwelcome.

The point is that if posting for support in this community is acceptable, then, yes only those people who are capable of giving support are really welcome to respond. Those who for whatever reason are not capable of giving support should simply skip the thread.

I mean, if I saw a thread asking enworlders in general for their prayers, I am not going to respond and say "I don't pray and it wouldn't do you any good anyway". In fact, if its a poster I knew and liked, I would probably say something generically supportive (ala the "high school always sucks but stick with it" people in the gaymer thread) and completely ignore the aspect of the post that could be a point of contention with my philosophy. But thats just me...

Kahuna burger

 

[SemperJase]

I found it interesting that one poster complained aong the lines that the only views welcome were those that agreed with titus... well, yeah.

That poster was me. I find it a tradegy that this young man has "discovered"/"chosen" (whatever term you are comfortable with) a lifestyle at the young age of 14 that is likely to take 20 years off his life (look up the life expectancy statistics).

I find it bad judgement that others would advise a 14 year old to explore any sexuality. Fourteen year olds should concentrate on school and relationship building (not consumation).

You comparison to pregnancy is not valid. Presumably, the pregnancy concerned people of an age old to enough to be better equipped to handle to the emotional, physical, and financial consequences.

 

[Dinkeldog]

Let's let the subject rest a few days, everyone.